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The Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. § 552) establishes the rules under which individuals can request and obtain access to unpublished records of federal executive branch agencies. Certain types of records— such as classified documents or those that would disclose confidential business information--are exempt from FOIA. In addition, FOIA does not apply to the federal judiciary or elected officials, including the president, vice president, and members of Congress. The requesting individual may have to pay a fee for the reproduction of the documents, and the processing time for FOIA requests can be lengthy.

Despite its limitations, many Washington researchers use FOIA as part of their information-gathering process. Some organizations routinely use FOIA to obtain documents and make them publicly available. As an example, see the National Security Archive at <www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/>.